For those who cannot get enough of GAME OF THRONES Season 7, HBO has released THE GAME REVEALED, a new seven-episode post-season, behind-the-scenes series. The first episode is currently available on HBO Asia’s Facebook page while subsequent episodes will stream on HBO GO every Wednesday from September 6 onwards.
In addition, quotes from the GAME OF THRONES cast – Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne, ‘Pod’), Carice Van Houten (Melisandre), Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane, ‘The Hound’) and Aidan Gillen (Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish), are available further below.
Catch the encore telecast of the season finale, which was the most watched episode ever in the U.S. according to Nielsen ratings, on September 2 at 10.25pm on HBO. Also stream the entire series on HBO GO.
For GAME OF THRONES fans who are still dissecting and debating the major developments of season seven after the dramatic finale, HBO has released THE GAME REVEALED, a new post-season, behind-the-scenes series. The seven-part series features exclusive interviews with cast and crew that provide new info and insights on how some of the biggest moments from the latest season of the HBO series came together. The first episode of THE GAME REVEALED is now available on HBO Asia’s Facebook page, and fans. Subsequent episodes will stream on HBO GO every Wednesday from September 6 onwards.
THE GAME REVEALED: Episode 1
The 14-minute first episode contains previously unseen footage revealing the camera tricks behind Arya’s face-changing transformation into Walder Frey, the breathtaking Spanish landscapes that served as the backdrop for Daenerys’ home of Dragonstone, and exclusive interviews with episode one director Jeremy Podeswa, prosthetics designer Barrie Gower and cast members, including Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams, and guest star Ed Sheeran.
Quotes From The Game Of Thrones Cast
Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark)
Q: How does Bran find out about Jon’s parentage?
IHW: He only gets the full picture when Samwell Tarly comes to Winterfell and goes to him, ‘Hang on a second, there was this secret wedding’. Bran can then go back in time and sort of look it up, like something in a dictionary. He establishes the wedding did happen and that’s when he goes, ‘Right, now is the time to tell Jon that he’s a legitimate heir to the throne: more legitimate than Daenerys.’ But will he even bother mentioning it to Jon – because I think Bran recognises that all these kind of petty squabbles between Daenerys, Jon, Sansa and whoever are totally irrelevant in the face of the threat that will actually destroy civilisation. So it will be interesting to see whether Bran withholds that bit of information.
Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne, ‘Pod’)
Q: What will be the Pod highlight from a fan’s point of view this season?
DP: At one point in one of the later episodes you get a great moment where everybody gets together and it’s what I hope is going to be one of the fan-favourite moments of this series: from my point of view that means Pod and Tyrion seeing each other again – and it’s exactly as you would expect it. Barely more than a nod but a lot is said! His relationship with Brienne has been one of necessity but that’s him. If he needs to do something, he’ll do it and I’ve always thought that he’s stuck with her because he would want Tyrion to think that he could see the task through.
Q: So it’s not necessarily duty or a moral thing?
DP: To begin with, I think it was the fact that she was just going to keep slagging him off and he was going to keep trying to prove himself, thinking things would come round eventually. It maybe took her a little longer to come round, but I think after he saw her putting herself on the line like she did with The Hound, then it all changed.
Q: And what’s their relationship like now?
DP: He’s proved himself a good few times as well with her and that’s been the real beauty of the relationship; the change has been so subtle. You might not even see that much of it as she’s still quite icy to him and it’s still very professional, but the audience have all seen the stuff that’s gone on privately, and the conversations that they’ve had, the moments that they’ve had to build their relationship. I think actually duty is definitely a huge part of it. Mostly though I think he’s just a guy who thinks he’s there to help. That’s his purpose; to make sure that the person with the real purpose can fulfill their purpose. He’s almost purposeless but he’s a hero in his own sense because he looks for no glory but he would put his neck on the line at a stroke.
Q: You mention that this season several long-separated characters are re-united. What was that like for the cast?
DP: We were all out in Seville and you had the biggest assembly of these named characters I’ve seen. I was seeing Jerome [Flynn] and Peter [Dinklage], and guys that I’ve maybe not seen for a few years – Rory [McCann] and people like that. You just bump into all these people and then you’re all staying in the same hotel, so you’d have dinner with each other at night and maybe have a couple of beers. It was a really, really nice way to wrap the season for me, being around all these people that I hadn’t got to see that often, and getting to spend a bit more time with them. When the audience first realises that this season they’re going to get everybody, essentially, in one room, they’re going to freak out! You’re going to get Jamie and Brienne again, and you get Pod and Tyrion again; you’re going to get Cersei and Tyrion, you’re going to get the Hound; you’re going to get all this stuff that people have been begging for four years, and it’s all going to hit you at once.
Carice Van Houten (Melisandre)
Q: What’s the feeling like now that we’re on the homeward stretch amongst the cast, and particularly for yourself? Are you starting to look back on the show?
CVH: A little bit, yeah. I’m thinking, “Ah, what a shame that it’s going to end and I’m really not going to see a lot of people anymore”, and I’m also sad that I’m not going to travel to Belfast. I’m going to have to look for another job that’s equally interesting, which is going to be really difficult, because roles like that don’t come along very often. There were moments where there were personal things happening that I will always connect to certain shooting days, but I’ve had loads of fun as well, even on really tough days like in the cave giving birth to the shadow baby; I mean there was Liam there making jokes while the prosthetic team were blowing air up in my prosthetic belly, and it was funny as well. I’ll miss it. But we still have one more season to go so it’s not over yet.
Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane, ‘The Hound’)
Q: There are many great re-acquaintances in the show this year. Who does the Hound meet for old times’ sake?
RM: I catch up with Brienne, after she ‘killed’ him last time. But I think Sandor’s at, kind of, peace with her. He understands that she was doing her job and he was doing the same kind of job and they just had a clash. That was all cool and that was great to work with Gwendoline [Christie] again. It was all good. There was almost a smile between us.
Q: Anyone else?
RM: Yeah I meet my brother, The Mountain, Gregor Clegane, this year, played by Hafpor [Júlíus Björnsson]. That’s a first. They bump in to each other in the big sort of UN conference in the Dragon’s Pit in King’s Landing. That was great because even though in the scenes there’s all this big politics going on all The Hound sees is his brother and he doesn’t care what’s going on. He walks up and goes, “Remember me? You’re still getting it by the way.” It’s a quick conversation but you just know the fans are going, “I knew it! Here we go – this bloody Clegane-bowl is on!”
Q: Are you excited at the prospect?
RM: Yeah I’d better start bloody training! He’s not that much taller than me but if it kicks off, I’m still gonna be the Jack Russell and he’s gonna be the Rottweiler.
Q: Where have you been shooting this year?
RM: We were out in Seville, and then a lot of the freezing stuff was done in Belfast, 1,000 foot up above a quarry, up in the clouds. That was brutal – we had hard weather there but we really bonded. In between sets and moves we’d be going back to our trailers and everyone was covered in shit. We’d just be stuck in this portacabin playing Risk. I mean the mad thing was in Belfast, because there weren’t real blizzards going on, they had to have these massive fans: the sort of fans that you would have on the back of a boat to get through swamps. We’d have at least two of them going with guys throwing snow in front of it and you couldn’t hear what the next actor was saying so everyone was just lip reading. Then there was Iceland that was amazing but there were some days where it was unbelievably cold, really hardcore sometimes. Not that I’m complaining – it was fantastic jumping into Super Jeeps just to get to set and Iceland is stunning. I mean I lived in Iceland for a year, so I love it there.
Aidan Gillen (Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish)
Q: In this series he does in fact get his come-uppance. What were your feelings about the end?
AG: I thought a character like that would definitely have to have it coming, and that the audience would expect it – given that when you analyse it, most of the chaos that’s enveloped this world, he has had a hand in. Even just specific single acts like the betrayal of Ned Stark. Or the murder of Lysa Arryn. Dontos [Hollard] was a character that people really liked, he was Sansa’s ally you know, and Littlefinger did for him too… there’s been so many despicable things. So the convention says this guy has to get his come-uppance. Now this show doesn’t always look at conventions, in fact one of its stances is that it avoids conventions entirely. But Littlefinger is not stupid enough to think that it’ll last forever. As he says to Robyn Arryn in Season Four, people die all the time. They die at the kitchen table; they die sitting on their chamber pots. The important thing is to live your life you know, because you’re here once. So he’s had a good run but we’d still like to think that when it happens it’s a bolt from the blue for the audience. I wasn’t surprised but I think they will be.
Most-Watched Episode Ever In The U.S.
In the U.S., the season finale of GAME OF THRONES Season 7 on Sunday, August 27, was the most watched episode ever. A total of 12.1 million viewers in the U.S. watched the 9pm premiere of the longest episode of the series titled “The Dragon and the Wolf”, 13% more than the previous mark set two weeks earlier (10.7 million viewers) and a 36% gain over last year’s finale (8.9 million viewers). The figure increases to 16.5 million when the first replay and preliminary viewing from U.S. subscribers of HBO GO and HBO NOW are added. Episodes of the current season are averaging just under 31 million viewers, up nearly 8 million viewers from the same point in time last season.
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